Air travel has grown ever more popular since the introduction of jet-powered aircraft, making widespread and frequent travel available for both business and pleasure travelers. To take advantage of these trends, aircraft manufacturers have continually enlarged aircraft, to the point where jumbo-jets may now carry 500 passengers, and ultra-high capacity aircraft to carry 700 or 800 passengers are proposed.
It can take a significant amount of time to board so many passengers, delaying departures of aircraft and imposing on the busy schedules of passengers by forcing the passengers to arrive at the gate much earlier than necessary. Upon landing, the process is reversed, but may still take a significant amount of time. The passengers are delayed from going on their way, and the aircraft cannot be cleaned, maintained or moved while deplaning is in progress.
Boarding bridges are typically used to board and disembark passengers on modern aircraft. Boarding bridges are needed both for vertical and horizontal movement of passengers: vertical because aircraft doors are many feet above ramp level, and horizontal because aircraft must be parked at a safe distance from any buildings or other obstructions. Passenger boarding bridges are desirable because they permit passengers and airline personnel to walk or otherwise traverse the distance between the gate of an airport terminal and a parked aircraft with ease. They eliminate the need to climb stairs outside, and provide relative comfort to boarding passengers by protecting them from extreme temperatures, wind, rain, snow or ice. However, such boarding bridges also limit the ingress to and egress from the aircraft, because of their necessarily limited access to the aircraft through a single aircraft doorway.
What is needed is a way to quickly emplane and deplane passengers from an aircraft, preferably via a boarding bridge for their comfort, so that the actual time spent in these processes is kept to a minimum. What is needed is a boarding bridge to quickly emplane and deplane passengers, so that aircraft downtime is kept to a minimum.
The invention is a passenger boarding bridge that will allow aircraft to emplane and deplane passengers from both the left side and the right side of an aircraft simultaneously. One embodiment of the invention is a boarding bridge for an aircraft, the bridge having a passageway extending from a sheltered passenger gate area, and having two arms extending from the passageway, one arm approaching a passenger door on the left side of an aircraft, and the other arm approaching a passenger door on the right side of the aircraft. Passengers may board the aircraft from opposite sides simultaneously via the two arms of the passageway. Upon completion of a trip, the passengers may deplane through the same two doors via a multiple-door access boarding bridge at their destination airport. Embodiments are not limited to two doors, such as one door on the left side of the aircraft and the other on the right side, but rather embodiments may include more than one door on each side of the aircraft, such as two doors on the left and one or two doors on the right side, and so on.
Another aspect of the invention is a method of emplaning and deplaning aircraft passengers, the method comprising providing an aircraft with at least one door on the left side and at least one door on the right side. The method further includes translating or moving a multiple-door access boarding bridge into close proximity with the appropriate doors on the aircraft, opening the doors on the aircraft, and emplaning or deplaning passengers simultaneously from the left side and the right side of the aircraft via the multiple-door access boarding bridge. The invention may have great applicability to wide-body aircraft, such as 747""s, 777""s, 767""s and A340s. It is not limited to widebody aircraft, however, and may be used to more quickly board or deplane passengers on all types of aircraft.